Every year in January and February, we not only abstain from alcohol, but also undertake a “reset” diet to make up for the indulgences of a long vacation and the holidays. For us, it’s ususally a variation on a low carb approach, with all real foods, almost no restaurant meals, no sugar, that kind of thing.
In the last week before this diet begins, we have tried in the past to fit in all the fun foods we’re going to miss, and it has ended up feeling like a culinary death march. So this year we’re being more restrained, hitting just a few favorites before we go into food lock down.
2024 List for Me
Banh mi (already checked off on Christmas)
Uni pasta
Fried chicken
Chips and pico (that’s at Jonathan’s insistence)
Bagels, smoked salmon, cream cheese (New Year’s Day tradition)
Some type of spicy Thai noodle dish like pad thai or pad kee mao
Some type of brothy Vietnamese dish with rice noodles like pho or bun cha.
Marea style fusili with octopus and bone marrow.
Pizza
potato gnocci
most Mexican food
full katsu dinner
fish and chips
I started mine already yesterday, but hit up some of my favorite places in my hometown prior, mostly just had some burgers, pizza, and frozen custard. However, it was such an active trip with a lot of physical labor (non-gym) that I ended up losing weight, weird.
I usually do some sort of low carb reset in January but decided to do a higher protein variant this year; I did a more traditional keto in the summer which was quite effective but I find all the fat to be bad for my digestion so I’m doing a high protein version (~60% protein, ~36-37% fat, ~3% carb at about a 500 kcal deficit) and we’ll see how it goes. So far energy seems pretty good.
I’ve been eating bar food and pizza for the past week in Westchester. After New Year, I’ll revert to my normal not-traveling meal mode: tea and a breakfast bar, then a cappuccino on the way to my office, followed by lunch, my main daily meal, then a very small (half sandwich or a bowl of vegan lentil soup or a couple of ounces white meat chicken or turkey with a small salad) supper before 7pm, after which I won’t eat again for 14 hours.
I happened into this during the pandemic and have lost 20-ish since. My booze intake will be moderate until Ardbeggeddon at the end of the month, which will be anything but moderate. And in Las Vegas.
I’ve not followed much with new science in keto lately, but a few years ago that was a topic discussed and from what I remember, you will likely not tolerate such a high proteine diet.
Not sure why, but there seems to be no escaping high fat, which turns off many people (including me).
Maybe I’ll dig some stuff when I have time, or look it up on the most active forum/website, I believe it’s a fairly discussed topic.
I tolerate high protein just fine. I routinely eat 3-400g protein with no issues and have for 30+ years.
The issue with keto is whether high protein will knock you out of ketosis because of gluconeogenesis, which I think it will generally not, because gluconeogenesis required a large amount of energy, and in a big caloric deficit, the equilibrium goes against gluconeogenesis. Furthermore, intermittent fasting can help with this by managing glucagon/cortisol levels. Also, GLP-1/GIPs obviously suppress gluconeogenesis.
The other question is regarding protein absorption and the newest research basically indicates the limits people used to think exist really don’t and you can absorb upwards of 80g of protein even in whey. If you were to uptake whole foods you can absorb much more because the digestion is much slower. Taking some digestive/protelytic enzymes can also help with absorption.
Good thing if you have it figured out, report back if a few months and let us know how it goes (I believe there’s a dedicated thread more active for the long run).
As to the op, I guess anything with high carbs : bread (so sandwich etc.), potatoes (fries, pommes dauphines), rice (chicken fried rice)… not a fan of pasta but a good carbonara or truffle with a touch of cream are favorites of mine.
Also, I guess it would not taste like the real thing blablabla, but isn’t there a way to do fried chicken with very low carbs?
I sometimes use iso-100 protein powder but I have been using the fairlife core power elite shakes for ease of use; they are milk isolate rather than specifically whey isolate. The downside is they have 7 grams of carbs, so you have to be a bit careful.
Alain - to continue the thread drift, no skin off my nose, @MChang is right about the science, however, any studies around nutrition or diets are limited for many reasons, one of which is the huge variability of human beings. Using averages from studies to say anything about an individual is very difficult when it comes to diet/nutrition. As it relates to keto, there is a very wide range of tolerance levels, both for protein and carbs, which will keep people in ketosis. For most people, it is a moderate, not a high protein diet, and the only way to know what you can tolerate is to try it and test yourself. Same with carbs.
I’ve done periods of following a ketogenic diet a number of times over the years, and I have never done the load-on-the-fat thing. I’ve simply allowed myself all the fat I would normally want for pleasure and taste, and that seems to have been enough, both in terms of keto and calories, when combined with moderate protein (not as high as I shoot for at regular times, but still plenty) and low carbs. I’ve exchanged keto for low carb these days for various reasons, but still consider it an excellent diet when well designed and applied over adequate period of time, not to mention a potentially life changing diet for people with diabetes and other possibly some other conditions as well.
As for psuedo fried chicken, sure you can do something that’s a little like fried chicken without carbs. But there are plenty of other things I can do with chicken that I like just as much or more, so I don’t try.
I’m getting ready to reset as well. I cooked some Flannery Tenderloin Roasts for Christmas but when some of the guests pulled out sock I cut one roast in half before cooking, wrapped it in plastic wrap and put in the freezer. Tonight we’re having Wellington, then no more carbs, processed grains, starches, sugar (wine maybe once a week) for me. Just getting my system back in sync will be nice.
I also look forward to it. The first week is a little hard and Jonathan teases me for saying “this is dumb” every year around day 2. But then the suscess and structure starts to feed me mentally and it’s pretty easy. Of course, like you and many others here, the diet food we prepare is pretty awesome.
I am not sure how big a change is for most people but for me I mostly eat the same things (with somewhat bigger portions of the proteins) but just drop all the carbs (rice, whole grains, milk, fruit) and add a few more vegetables for variety. I think switching to IF is a bigger difference for me, especially because we work out in the AM a lot so it’s hard to not eat until 1 pm if you work out from 9-11 AM.
I’ve been doing something similar every year after watching the documentary “Fat, Sick and Nearly Dead” and have found the results pretty amazing. One week of fruits and vegetables only, followed by 10-14 days of fruit and vegetable juice (in the winter, some soup too). No alcohol, sugar, grains, legumes, potatoes or rice.
It gets a bit boring by the end but it takes off over 20 pounds, slashes the cholesterol and you sleep like a baby (my sleeping heart rate drops about 10 points)
